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WAY EDUCATION. 




AN ESSAY 


READ BEFORE THE R. R. Y. M. C. A. OF KANSAS 
CITY, MO., FEB. 15, 1881, 



J. R. HARDY, 


General Agent K. C., St. J., & C. B. R. R 


CHICAGO: 

The J. M.W. Jones Stationery and Printing Co. 
1881. 



Railway Education. 


AN ESSAY 

> > 

* < » f 

READ BEFORE THE R. R. Y. M. C. A. OF KANSAS 
CITY, MO., FEB. 15, 1881, 


— BY— 



J. R HARDY, 


General Agent K. C., St. J., & C. B. R. R. 

(( AL'i 1 5 J88J j 

CHICAGO: 

The J. M. W. Jones Stationery and Printing. Go. 

1881. 



RAILWAY EDUCATION. 


My Friends : — At the request of your 'President 
I have the pleasure and gratification of addressing 
you, the railroad men of Kansas City. 

No business affords a better school for practical 
education than yours. By the labor that you per- 
form is carried out a system of comprehensive trans- 
portation that stands unrivaled in the history of the 
world. By your faithful working in the several de- 
partments of the railroad service, a safe, speedy, and 
pleasant means of transportation is afforded to every 
passenger and at a cheap price for such service. By 
it, also, every kind of freight — the mineral in the pig 
or manufactured by the moulder or mechanic ; the coal 
from the mine or the coke from the furnace ; the stone 
from the quarry or dressed by the mason ; the timber 
in the log or from the workshop of the artizan ; the 
grain from the farm or the grist and flour from the 
mill ; the fruit of the earth in its ripeness or canned 
from the factory ; the cotton in its native state from 
the plantations of the South or woven from the mills 
of the East ; the live stock, the cattle, sheep and hogs, 


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or the hides, wool, packed meats and lard — in short, 
everything that is eaten, or drank, or smoked, or worn, 
or that enters, however slightly, into the world of 
service, passes through your hands to its destination. 
You are the custodians of wealth untold, and to your 
care is committed the lives of countless thousands. 

Foremost among the principles of practical educa- 
tion stand system and discipline. Without system no 
headway would be made, no order would be possible, 
and what a bable of confusion our work would be ! 
We breathe the inspiration of system from felie Creator 
of the universe. The earth revolves and gives us 
regularly day and night ; we have a regular system of 
seasons, from which the farmer takes his lessons of 
sowing and reaping. By a complete system all the 
minutiae of railroad business is regulated, from the 
construction of the line to the carrying of the busi- 
ness ; the making of time-cards and rules governing 
the same ; the classification of the different kinds of 
freight and the proper charge for each ; the receipt 
and payment of moneys. In the carrying out of this 
system, descipline is pre-eminent. System dictates the 
way, discipline executes. “ Tell me what you want 
done, ” says Discipline to System, “ and I will go to 
work and do it. ” Discipline marshals the mechanical 


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force, places every man at his post, and points out to 
him his duty, and let us all remember the excellence 
of the proverb : “ He is not fit to command who has 

not first learned to obey. ” 

You occupy positions of great responsibility. Yes, 
there is a grave responsibility resting upon every man 
connected with the railroad service, from the Presi- 
dent of the company, who represents the owners of 
the property, to the poorest watchman, who stands 
flag in hand at some public road crossing, and who, 
though his pay is small and his labor light, protects 
the public and the trains from accident. The great 
responsibility with you is that you shall carry out 
your instructions. A few years ago, on one of the 
railroads running to Kansas City, there was a regula- 
tion requiring conductors of passenger trains to per- 
sonally throw switches at points of meeting with other 
trains. This order was not lived up to, and one night 
a brakeman, a new man on the road, doing this work 
for his conductor, got confused, and after he had 
thrown the switch rightly he threw it back, and 
brought about a collision between two passenger 
trains, and the conductor of the meeting train — a vet- 
eran in the service, and one of the noblest of men — 
lost his life. The conductor who had failed to carry 


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out his orders lost his situation. But what mattered 
that to the dead conductor. 

The failure of the conductor and engineer to com- 
ply with their train orders would result disastrously to 
life and property, as would the neglect of the operator 
to carry out the orders of the dispatcher, which was 
the case a few years ago on a Canadian railroad, 
whereby a collision of passenger trains occurred, and 
over a score of men and women were scalded to 
death. Or the section man who removes a rail from 
the track and neglects to protect the break by proper 
signals, jeopardizes the lives of people totally uncon- 
scious of danger as they are carried swiftly forward 
on the express train. The careless passing of the 
rolling stock by the inspector is a very dangerous 
thing, quite likely to result in disaster; and the 
wrong selling of a ticket, or the wrong checking of 
the baggage, the wrong billing of the freight by the 
bill clerk, or the wrong loading by the warehouseman, 
or the wrong switching of the car by the yardmen, 
will cause a world of disappointment, delay and ex- 
pense. 

And yet this very thing of responsibility is the best 
feature in your practical education. Every man has 
his own responsibility. Every man is expected to do 


his duty. Every man can demonstrate that he is a 
man among men. Thus may each member of this 
vast army of railroad men of these United States say 
“ I carry upon my shoulders the responsibility accom- 
panying my position, and I will be faithful to my 
trust. ” The poorest man in the service can carry 
just as much responsibility as the richest, for respon- 
sibility not being wholly measured by money or posi- 
tion, is faithfully served by that composition which 
God has implanted in every sane human being, no 
matter whether he be rich or poor — no matter whether 
he rides in the director’s car or labors on the section. 

And this is in accordance with the nature of the 
institutions of our country. As there is no position 
in the gift of the people to which a born citizen of 
the United States may not aspire, so there is no po- 
sition in the length and breadth of your profession 
that you may not reach. It is within the grasp of 
every railroad employe, no matter how humble his 
position, by his own exertions and conduct, to rise to 
even the highest, and from the responsibility of car- 
rying out instructions received, be called to the re- 
sponsibility of issuing instructions. We have not to 
look far for proof of this. The General Manager of 
a Western line, and the Superintendent of another, 


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running to Kansas City, some twenty years ago were 
telegraph operators at small local stations ; the Gen- 
eral Manager of another line, and the General Super- 
intendent yet of another, also running to Kansas 
City, less than twenty years ago were brakemen; 
and three Division Superintendents of other railways 
running to Kansas City, but a few years ago were 
conductors of trains. All these men were disciples 
of practical education, and faithful to their trusts. 

The influences of your profession are elevating. 
The railroad is a public benefactor. See the waste 
places that have sprung into life and activity with the 
march of the Iron Horse. Hear the ringing of the 
anvil and the buzz of machinery, and see the busy 
hive of men working in these new-made cities, all 
called into active being by the railroad ! Witness 
the civilizing influence of these bands of iron, which 
have connected the shores of the Atlantic with those 
of the Pacific, the Gulf with the Lakes ; which have 
traversed the crowded cities and States of the East, 
crossed the mighty rivers, spread over the “ boundless 
prairies, ” braved the dangers of the cannon, and scaled 
the steep mountains ; which have carried the men of 
capital and brains and energy into every portion of 
our country, and done so much to abolish old party 


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lines — to make this glorious land no East, no West, 
no North, no South, but the mighty United States 
forever ! 

Sometimes an angry or disappointed man cries out 
that railroad corporations have no souls. He forgets, 
or heeds not, the great service railroad companies ren- 
der annually in the name of that greatest of virtue, 
** Charity.” 

True, there is a large portion of the business in 
the operating department hazardous, and attended 
with considerable danger ; yet how often do the facts 
prove that the party receiving personal injuries openly 
violated the very instructions framed especially for 
his protection ? We can all name prominent sur- 
geons, eminent in their profession, retained on the 
pay rolls by the railroad companies to administer to 
the necessities of wounded railroad employes, free. 
We are familiar with many reading rooms and libra- 
ries maintained in excellent condition by railroad 
companies and placed at the disposal of the employes ; 
and here I want to accord the full meed of praise to 
the railroad company at Topeka for the generous gift 
of $25,000 for the establishment of a similar insti- 
tution recently, and the very room we are now as- 
sembled in, with its facilities for cleanliness, amuse- 


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ment and instruction, is a boon to you from the rail- 
road companies. You have within your reach ample 
facilities for the personal possession of that treasure so 
beautifully described by the poet in the following 
lines : 

“ Long on Golconda’s shore a diamond lay, 

Neglected, rough, concealed in common clay. 

By every passenger despised and scorned, 

The latent jewel thus in secret mourned,— 

‘ Why am I thus to sordid earth confined? 

Why scorned and trod upon by every hind? 

Were these bright qualities, this glittering hue, 

And dazzling lustre never meant for view ? 

Wrapt in eternal shade if I remain, 

These shining virtues were bestowed in vain.’ 

As thus the long-neglected gem displayed 
Its worth and wrong, a skillful artist strayed 
By chance that way, and saw with curious eye, 

Tho’ much obscured, the valued treasure lie. 

He ground with care, and polished it with art, 

And called forth all its rays from every part. 

And now young Delia’s neck ordained to grace, 

It adds new charms to beauty’s fairest face, 

The mind of man, neglected and untaught, 

Is this rough diamond in the mind unwrought. 

’Till education lend her aid, unknown 
The brightest talents lie, a common stone ; 

By her fair hands fashioned, the new mind 
Rises with lustre, polished and refined. ” 

You labor in a city of prominent standing in the 
world for energy, brains and enterprise — only a few 
years ago a place of hills, and holes, and inactivity, 


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but now a lasting monument of strength and beauty 
to the men of your profession, and with the further 
development of the country, in its march of civiliza- 
tion and improvement, the practical men of your 
calling will surely rise ; but it will not be the sluggard 
that will come to the front ; it will not be the careless, 
indifferent man, who cares for nothing but quitting- 
time and pay-day, that will rise. It will be the earn- 
est worker, the man who takes as much interest and 
pride in his business as though it were his own prop- 
erty that he was handling ; it will be the disciple of 
practical education, who has performed his labor faith- 
fully, stood his responsibility manfully, and demon- 
strated his own worthiness. 

And now I say to you, railroad men of Kansas City, 
educate yourselves in your profession. Place the red 
signal of danger before the vice of drunkenness , and 
its twin brother of disaster, gambling. Be patient in 
your labor and faithful to your trust. Thus shall 
you be fortified with practical knowledge, and strength- 
ened with resolution, — respected by the community 
and honored by your employers, — and you will surely 


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